Creme de la pastry

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One of my first memories of eating choux pastry was when I was quite small and my parents had bought a cardboard box full of chocolate drizzled éclairs filled with the fluffiest whipped cream — a hint of vanilla, a whisper of sugar. It was an epiphany. This for me, was the most magnificent thing ever. Since

then, I cannot pass a bakery selling éclairs or profiteroles without thinking about going in and buying one. Whether it was the tiny bake-shop in Panjim which sold crisp choux, in the shape of a swan, filled with too-sweet custard or the patisserie in Paris which served up melt-in-the-mouth éclairs, bursting with espresso cream, covered in dark chocolate, the glossy ones at cake-shops at five-star hotels, the packed profiteroles in the food section in Marks & Spencer, the gorgeous, rich éclairs at Mr Baker’s in Dubai or our local snack-shop and its slightly soggy but still delicious mini-eclairs — I love them. I could eat one (or four) everyday.
Wiki says pate de choux (French for cabbage — because of how the pastry looks after it is baked) pastry was invented in the 16th century using only butter, water, flour and egg and using steam as a raising agent, to give it its characteristic fluffiness.
Following our family tradition of “if you like it, learn to make it at home”, my sister Gynelle and I tried a couple of times. The results were not sublime. Enter the ‘real’ chef, my brother Glenard. After eating some rather humdrum profiteroles on holiday last week, I returned to be greeted with rows upon rows of perfect, light, golden, melting choux pastry. I sat down immediately and ate three — only in the interest of research, you understand. This is his recipe and a series of fillings we tried, ate and will have to worry about exercising off.

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Mushroom & Cheese Filling
Sage, savoury fillings for éclairs are just so much fun. If you make small buns and fill them with a variety of mousses you can serve these at a finger-foods-only cocktail party and they will be well received. My sister suggests using the basics of this recipe and using four cheeses. You could also slice up cocktail sausages and pop a piece into each tiny roll. A light, chilli, cheese mousse would go well too. The idea is to keep it smooth but flavoursome to complement and also contrast the bland, delicate pastry.

Ingredients:

200 gms mushrooms
30 fresh sage leaves
1 small onion finely minced
100 gms ricotta (or cottage cheese)
25 gms parmesan
50 gms cheddar
4 tbs butter
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
Handful of fresh parsley
Salt to taste

Method:

Slice the mushrooms. In a frying pan, sauté the onion in butter until it is translucent and soft. Roughly tear the sage. Add the mushrooms and sage. Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the mushrooms and sauté until the water that comes out of them has evaporated. Season with pepper. Turn off the heat and turn into a mixing bowl. Using a hand-blender, puree the sage, mushroom mix with the ricotta, cheddar and parmesan. Throw in the parsley and puree again. Taste for salt (though the parmesan should have made it salty enough.) Leave in the fridge to chill.

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Glenard’s Choux Pastry
This is a recipe for the basic choux pastry which is baked. The shape depends on how you pipe the dough. Try and pipe it in one go because the fewer ‘layers’ there are, the more hollow the centre will be and you can fill it easily. Instead of piping the dough, you could also try using a large spoon to dollop the dough out. If your neighbourhood has been inundated by churros, you will be happy to know they are deep fried versions of the same dough, so experiment with that as well. This recipe makes about 30 to 40 depending on how large you pipe ’em. Remember, the dough doubles in the oven so keep enough room between them.

Ingredients:

Water 750ml
Butter 450gms
Flour (maida) 450gms
Eggs 12
Sugar 1tsp
Salt 1/2tsp (half)
1 egg yolk for glazing

Method:

Preheat the oven to 220 C. Take a heavy saucepan (the bottom of your pressure cooker will do fine). Turn on the heat, put the water, butter, salt and sugar in. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Once it has boiled, turn off the heat. Add the flour all at once and briskly mix until it has amalgamated fully. Now turn the heat back on to medium this time and cook for another two or three minutes stirring constantly. (This is very important, Glenard says sternly.) Turn off the heat and remove the dough to a bowl and let it cool for five minutes. Take a hand beater (not a kneader) and begin to beat the dough, adding one egg at a time. Keep beating until you end up with a sticky dough that stays together — not crumbs. Let this cool for another five minutes. Now, fill the dough into a piping bag with a big nozzle (3/4” or bigger) or you can use two spoons. Using a little vegetable oil (not butter), grease baking trays and pipe 2.5-3” wide and 2” high balls onto the trays (or in lengths for eclairs) keep 3” between each for expansion. Glaze each lightly with beaten egg yolk using a pastry brush and brush down and smooth any peaks left by the piping bag. Bake in preheated oven at 220 C on the middle or top rack for 25 min.
Turn off the oven and using a skewer pierce a hole in each one or make a slit in the side of each to let the steam out. If you can do this while it is still in the oven (Glenard says, be a man and just do it) then that’s perfect. If not, take the trays out and briskly, without burning yourself, do it and return to the oven or they may collapse.
Leave the pastry in the (turned off but hot) oven for another 20-30 min to dry out (check on them from time to time). The latent heat will dry them out.

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Smoked Salmon Mousse
This ‘mousse’ doesn’t use eggs and is not a mousse in the strictest sense. But it’s very creamy, deceptively light and delicious. Trade the salmon for steamed, pureed and sieved asparagus or finely pureed tuna. If the smoked salmon you buy is strongly flavoured, it’s fine — but otherwise, make sure you use a very natural tasting cream cheese. Some of the local brands seem to be infused with a ‘cheese’ flavour that overpowers the subtle smokiness of the salmon. If you’re feeling fancy, buy a tin of cheap caviar and top each roll with some. It’ll be a nice anti-recession touch.

Ingredients:

250 gms smoked salmon
200 gms cream cheese
50 gms heavy cream (optional)
½ tsp chives (optional)

Method:

Reserve a few slivers of salmon for garnish. Let the cream cheese come to room temperature. With a hand-blender, blitz the salmon and cream cheese until smooth. If the mousse seems too firm, add the heavy cream and blitz for about 1 minute. Stir in the chives. Pour into your piping bag and then leave in the fridge to chill for a bit so that it has a chance to harden slightly. Pipe into éclairs and serve immediately.

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Banana Chocolate Custard
Over-ripe bananas — have I talked about them enough? Yes, I know, but this is such a lovely filling. Healthy and kid-friendly: they can help you make this as well as love eating this. Melt extra chocolate so they can brush their puffs themselves. Also, as with all the recipes, if you can’t be bothered to make the pastry, you can use these as pancake fillings as well. Check the blog for a delicious roast-oat-wheatflour pancake recipe.

Ingredients:

4-6 overripe bananas
200 gms milk or dark chocolate
2 tbs cornflour or custard powder
1 pinch of real vanilla bean or 2 drops vanilla essence
½ cup of cream
Pinch of salt

Method:

Slice the bananas. In a wide saucepan, add enough water to come up 1 cm and place the bananas in. Bring to a boil and then let the bananas simmer gently. Add the vanilla and salt. Mix the cornflour with a little cold water until you have a solution. When the bananas are falling apart, add the cream and cornflour and keep stirring gently. The mix will start to turn custardy. Turn off the heat and stir for about 2 more minutes while the mixture thickens. Empty out into a bowl and leave to stand. Take two bowls now. Place chocolate in one and boiling water in the other. Place the chocolate bowl over the water (be very very careful that the water does not get into the chocolate or your chocolate will ‘seize’ and be no good) and stir gently so that the chocolate melts. When it has, whisk it into the banana custard. Leave in the fridge to set. When quite chilled, put into a piping bag and pipe into the rolls.